Transformation reporters

Abstract Alkaloids are very much important molecules, not only for chemical reasons but also because of their diverse biological activities. Up to now several reviews have been published explaining the use of biotransformation or microbial transformation techniques to modify alkaloids, which added several advantages over the classical chemical transformation systems. This chapter is a critical update of the microbial transformations reported in the last couple of years, targeting novel biocatalysts from microbes. 

Triclosan is a broad spectrum antibacterial agent with antifungal and antiviral properties, widely employed in personal care products such as soaps, shampoos, toothpastes, and cosmetics [40]. Fungal-mediated degradation studies have been mainly performed by means of enzymatic processes, although a couple of whole cell transformation reports are available. 

The majority of transformations reported within the literature using the concept of LUMO energy lowering iminium ion activation have nsed secondary amines as the catalyst. Under the aqueous acidic reaction conditions inherent to this mode of activation it is also possible to nse primary amines as efficient catalysts where the active species is the protonated imine 141 (Fig. 13). Althongh this is a somewhat less explored avenne of research, initial results suggest it will become an equally fruitful area with broad application. 

Each of the four Parts of this book begins with a Personal transformation report . These are case reports by individual managers who have put themselves through the process of undertaking a small but challenging project in their work which has resulted in practical learning and personal development. 

Summaries of results of hydroamination mediated with Rh(I) amide complexes584 and comprehensive reviews giving detailed information of the field are available.585-587 Therefore, only the more important relatively new findings are presented here. In most of the transformations reported transition metals are applied as catalysts. The feasibility of the use of tcrt-BuOK was demonstrated in the base-catalyzed amination of styrenes with aniline.588... 

Dideoxyhexoses. Several bacterial antigenic determinants with the general structure of 3,6-dideoxyhexoses occur in the cell wall of Pasteurella and Salmonella strains. Most of the transformations reported so far occur as cytidine nucleotides (see Table I, References 15, 16, 17, 18, 19). Here, again the first step is the transformation of the cytidine diphospho-linked glucose into its corresponding 4-keto derivative. By at least two distinct steps, requiring NADPH, reduction to several different 3,6-dideoxyhexoses have been reported. One 3,6-dideoxyhexose CDP-tyvelose (3,6-dideoxy-D-arabino hexose) is formed by a specific 2-epimer-ase from CDP-paratose (24). 

The triazine herbicides can be divided into four different structural classes chlorotriazines, methylthiotriazines, methoxytriazines, and atypical or asymmetrical triazines. The chlorotriazine group includes atrazine, simazine, pro-pazine, terbuthylazine, and cyanazine. The methylthiotriazine group includes ametryn, prometryn, and terbutryn. The methoxytriazine group will include prometon and secbumeton. Hexazinone and metribuzin were chosen to represent the atypical triazine group. The plant metabolism of the most researched member of each triazine group will be discussed in detail to cover all major biological and chemical transformations reported in the literature. 

The C-H transformations reported here are tolerant of a variety of functional groups but rather sensitive to ortho substituents which strongly interact with pal-... 

There are many problems associated with carrying out asymmetric synthesis at scale. Many asymmetric transformations reported in the literature use the technique of low temperature to allow differentiation of the two possible diastereoisomeric reaction pathways. In some cases, the temperature requirements to see good asymmetric induction can be as low as -100°C. To obtain this temperature in a reactor is costly in terms of cooling and also presents problems associated with materials of construction and the removal of heat associated with the exotherm of the reaction itself. It is comforting to see that many asymmetric catalytic reactions do not require the use of low temperature. However, the small number of robust reactions often leads development chemists to resort to a few tried and tested approaches, namely chiral pool synthesis, use of a chiral auxiliary, or resolution. In addition, the scope and limitations associated with the use of a chiral catalyst often result in a less than optimal sequence either because the catalyst does not work well on the necessary substrate or the preparation of that substrate is long and costly. Thus, the availability of a number of different approaches helps to minimize these problems (Chapter 2). 

Following the Fischer procedure, alkynyl carbyne complexes trans-X(CO)4M=C—CPh 189 have been obtained in 30-60% yields by reaction of (l-alkynyl)carbene complexes la,b (M = Cr, W) with BX3 (X = Cl, Br, I). To date, (l-alkynyl)carbyne compounds have found application as catalysts as well as stochiometric reagents in organic synthesis.205c-206 Among the transformations reported thus far is the formation of a 4-amino-l-metalla-l-yne-3-ene (= enamino carbyne complex) 190 by addition of HNMe2 to compound 189 (Scheme 79).207... 

Scheme 2 Basic Cp2TiCl-promoted transformations reported by RajanBabu and Nugent [7,20-22]...

The crystal structure change associated with the solid-state transformation of pure MoFe, i.e., body-centered cubic above the transformation to orthorhombic below it, is analogous to the cubic-to-orthorhombic transformation reported (20) for the 5d hexafluorides, WFe, ReFe, OsFe, IrFe, and PtFe. Another investigation has shown that the solid-state transformation in MoFe involves the crystal structure change from body-centered cubic to orthorhombic see Ref. 14). 

A variation on this model has recently been proposed by Kelly et al. who suggested that the hydroxy group of the Criegee intermediate could not be immobilized in such a mechanism, and that unreasonable steric constraints would be imposed for many of the substrates transformed reported for these enzymes. A new tautomer of the the flavin hydroperoxide was proposed as part of an alternative scheme (lower cycle, Fig. 16.5-16) in which an intermediate trioxane decomposes to yield the lactone and flavin hydrate. 

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